A weblog for professionals in electrical, electronic, mechanical and software engineering with content provided by the members of the Long Island Consultant's Network.

July 29, 2017

No Petrol or Diesel - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I was listening to British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) news recently via WNYC-FM and heard a report that Parliament has passed legislation to the effect that all "petrol" and diesel fueled automobiles are to cease production in the UK by the year 2040. In twenty-three years, all automobiles are to be differently powered.

I read about hydrogen powered cars as one alternative where the combustion products of that fuel are "harmless" water vapor. However, humidity levels here on Long Island in the summer can be very oppressive and stifling. Local weather reports frequently address that issue. Now imagine having hundreds of thousands of hydrogen fueled vehicles adding their water vapor emissions to already way too high humidity levels and suddenly water vapor emissions don't look so harmless anymore.

Furthermore, I recall having once read a rather alarming article that there is approximately a ten percent loss of hydrogen that occurs whenever a vehicle of that design is fueled up and that the escaped hydrogen is a very powerful greenhouse gas. That is not so harmless either.

Alternatively, completely electric cars have historically had issues with limited range. Although there has been admirable range improvement of late, the recharge time of an electric car's battery is still quite long. You can't just pull up into the equivalent of a gasoline filling station, somehow "tank up" and drive off and if you are driving cross country, you need/want to be able to "refuel" and move on right away.

Although battery swapping has been proposed as a possible solution, that swapping would mean having to lift and move around some pretty heavy objects. Batteries are not light in weight and that is an unsolved problem.

It would appear that Parliament has passed legislation which decrees that future technological breakthroughs shall be made in a prescribed time span. Historically, that kind of planning for the future hasn't worked out because breakthroughs just aren't that predictable.

Back in the 1950s, there were predictions of rocket borne postal service, of personal valet robots and of atomic powered airplanes. In the 1980s, Dr. Teller told President Reagan that spacecraft x-ray lasers were an imminent breakthrough for the "Star Wars" defense system.

None of those predicted breakthroughs ever came to fruition.

I hold that with the apparent intention of doing something good for our global environment, Parliament has committed a regrettable folly. Such is the price of not having carefully thought through the consequences of their action.

Comments

Out of sight, out of mind.

The electricity to charge electric cars typically means the burning of coal, so how is this preferably to the modern clean-burning petrol-engined car? Then there's the huge environmental impact of battery production and disposal to consider. But the politicos don't see that.

A few comments:
Water vapor: Gas-fueled cars exhaust water as combustion product as well, so this cannot be an argument. Besides, the amounts produced by cars are small compared to the ambient vapor.
Range is becoming less of an issue with increased range of the cars themselves as well as fast-charging stations being installed in regular intervals on highways. Tesla has shown that it is possible.

No technological breakthrough is necessary to make this happen, just application of existing technology. A push from legislators is very welcome to overcome lobby interests and start the work in time to renew the infrastructure and slow down global warming.

The water vapor in gas fueled cars is a part of the exhaust, but water vapor is said to be the entirety of the exhaust with hydrogen fuel. The environmental impact of that has not been studied so far as I'm aware and is therefore very much a point of "argument".

As to "fast charging", that capability, improving as it is, still has a long way to go with new breakthroughs required to catch up with gasoline refueling. I can be in and out of the local Exxon station a lot faster than a Tesla can be fully recharged. There are good intentions, yes, but specious technological forecasting at best.